The present invention relates to the delivery of nutritional liquids such as baby milk from capsules, in particular, from nutritional ingredients including heat sensitive bioactive ingredients such as probiotic microorganisms and to a method for delivering such nutritional liquids from capsules.
Infant formulas have been developed as a substitute for human breast milk in order to provide required nutrients to infants. In general the infant formulas are either based on cow or soy milk and may be provided in different forms such as powder or concentrated liquid form.
If prepared and consumed in this manner, powdered infant formulas provide a safe and nutritionally good substitute for mother's milk in the situations described above. However, the process needs to be repeated every time a feed is required. It may readily be seen that this may not always be convenient and, as a consequence, many parents and other caregivers do not prepare the formulas properly and hence expose the infant to the risk of infection. For example, the water may not be boiled prior to use in which case any pathogens in the water are fed to the infant. Usually water sources in developed countries are reasonably safe but this may not be the case everywhere.
Alternatively, batches of the infant formula may be prepared and then stored until needed. Unfortunately, if any pathogen has contaminated the formula, it then has time to replicate, significantly increasing the risk of infection in the infant.
In further development, infant formulas in ready-to-feed single serve portions have been introduced which overcome the inconvenience of the preparation of the infant formula. However, these ready-to-feed products are more costly than infant formulas stored in bulk and there is the same need to consume the formula immediately after opening to avoid the risk of contamination with bacteria.
A device which teaches the principle of treating water by means of a filter used for the preparation of nutritional compositions in a dispenser from capsules is disclosed in co-pending European patent application No. 06117801.8 filed 25 Jul. 2006 entitled “Dispenser for preparing a nutritional composition”.
In the recent past, certain strains of bacteria have attracted considerable attention because they have been found to exhibit valuable properties for man if ingested. In particular, specific strains of the genera Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria have been found to be able to colonise the intestinal mucosa, to reduce the capability of pathogenic bacteria to adhere to the intestinal epithelium, to have immunomodulatory effects and to assist in the maintenance of well-being. Such bacteria are sometimes called probiotics.
Extensive studies have been carried out to identify new probiotic strains. For example, EP 0 199 535, EP 0 768 375, WO 97/00078, EP 0 577 903 and WO 00/53200 disclose specific strains of Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria and their beneficial effects.
As far as infants specifically are concerned, immediately before birth, the gastro-intestinal tract of a baby is thought to be sterile. During the process of birth, it encounters bacteria from the digestive tract and skin of the mother and starts to become colonised. Large differences exist with respect to the composition of the gut microbiota in response to the infant's feeding. The fecal flora of breast-fed infants includes appreciable populations of Bifidobacteria with some Lactobacillus species, whereas formula-fed infants have more complex micro biota, with Bifidobacteria, Bacteroides, Clostridia and Streptococci all usually present. After weaning at about 2 years of age, a pattern of gut microbiota that resembles the adult pattern becomes established.
For this reason, it has been proposed to add probiotics to infant formulae to encourage gut colonization to take place and to promote colonization with the “good” bacteria—species of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli—rather than the harmful bacteria—pathogens such as clostridia.
For instance, WO 2004/112507 relates to infant or follow-on formula comprising a source of proteins, a source of lipids, a source of carbohydrates and a probiotic.
As of today, no convenient solution has been proposed for the delivery in a convenient and safe manner, nutritional liquids prepared from single-use capsules processed in a beverage production device; said capsule including certain heat sensitive bioactive ingredients such as probiotics or certain heat sensitive polypeptides or glycoproteins.
One problem with the reconstitution in a capsule of a nutritional liquid containing such bioactive ingredients is that by introducing hot liquid into the capsule to ensure a sufficient level of food safety, e.g. to kill non-desirable microorganisms, the heat sensitive bioactive ingredients are also incidentally degraded or deactivated (e.g. probiotics killed). Therefore, the nutritional liquid no longer delivers the full health or immune benefits intended.
Furthermore, there is a need to ensure that non-desirable bacteria or yeast cannot be delivered in the nutritional liquid, whereas the desired bioactive ingredients, e.g., probiotics, are maintained in an optimal bioactive state when they are delivered in said liquid.